Biofilm lifestyle enhance diesel biorremediation and biosurfactant production in the Antartic polyhydroxyalcanoate producer Pseudomonas extremaustralis

TRIBELLI PAULA M.; DI MARTINO CARLA; LOPEZ NANCY I.; RAIGER IUSMAN LAURA

BIODEGRADATION

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2012 vol. 23 p. 645 - 651

0923-9820

Diesel is a widely distributed pollutant. Bioremediation of this kind of compounds requires the use of microorganisms able to survive and adapt to contaminated environments. Pseudomonas extremaustralis is an Antarctic bacterium with a remarkable survival capability associated to polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) production. This strain was used to investigate the effect of cell growth conditions-in biofilm versus shaken flask cultures-as well as the inocula characteristics associated with PHAs accumulation, on diesel degradation. Biofilms showed increased cell growth, biosurfactant production and diesel degradation compared with that obtained in shaken flask cultures. PHA accumulation decreased biofilm cell attachment and enhanced biosurfactant production. Degradation of long-chain and branched alkanes was observed in biofilms, while in shaken flasks only medium-chain length alkanes were degraded. This work shows that the PHA accumulating bacterium P. extremaustralis can be a good candidate to be used as hydrocarbon bioremediation agent, especially in extreme environments.